Colorado Rockies: A look back at 2005 … in video game form

2005 was not a good year for the Colorado Rockies. They finished with a 67-95 record and were the worst team in the National League. Would it be different in video games?

15 years ago today, the Colorado Rockies were playing games in Spring Training at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, Arizona. It had been their spring training home since they had become a franchise 12 years earlier. Previously, the Cleveland Indians called the facility home for spring training but its primary use was (and still is) for the University of Arizona Wildcats baseball team.

The Rockies looked like they’d be one of the worst teams in the National League as they were mired in a long stretch of losing baseball. The last season in which they played over .500 baseball was in 2000, and even then, they only went 82-80. The last time that they finished a season more than four games above .500 was a decade prior in 1995. That was also the last time the Rockies were in the playoffs.

While the season was not a great one for the Rockies, 2005 was the year that the greatest baseball video game of all-time was created: MVP Baseball 2005. (You can disagree with me but you have the wrong opinion. Sorry.)

The game’s cover was graced with outfielder Manny Ramirez, of the reigning World Champion Boston Red Sox. The game was released on Nintendo’s GameCube, the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, and (a few months later) on PlayStation’s brand new system, the PlayStation Portable (or PSP).